SEC Chair Will Step Down Ahead of Trump Appointments

Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Jo White, after nearly four years as
the agency’s head, announced that she intends to leave at the end of the Obama
Administration.

Chair
White, who became the 31st Chair of the SEC in April 2013, will be one of the SEC’s longest serving Chairs.

In
addition to completing the vast majority of the agency’s mandates under the
Dodd-Frank Act and all of its mandates under the JOBS Act, Chair White’s
leadership has advanced the agency’s mission through other critical rulemakings
and built robust and effective frameworks for the SEC’s regulatory regimes
going forward.

“My
duty has been to ensure that the Commission implemented strong investor and
market protections, and to establish an enduring foundation for future progress
in the most critical areas—asset management regulation, equity market structure
and disclosure effectiveness,” says White.
“Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the SEC’s staff, we have
accomplished both.”

Under
her leadership, the SEC advanced more than 50 significant rulemaking
initiatives, including:

Major
enhancements to transparency and risk management for asset-backed securities, which were a significant contributor to the financial crisis;

Strong
operating standards for the clearing agencies that stand at the center of our
financial system; and

Extensive
reforms to the regulation of credit rating agencies and how they address
conflicts of interest that can harm investors.

NEXT: Improved enforcement

To
enhance accountability of those who violate the securities laws, White
implemented the Commission’s first-ever policy to require admissions of
wrongdoing in certain cases where heightened accountability and acceptance of
responsibility is appropriate. Thus far, the Commission has required admissions
from more than 70 defendants, including 44 entities and 29 individuals.

Under
White’s leadership, the Commission made significant enhancements to its
examination program, including increasing staff by about 20% by hiring new
examiners where funding permitted and redeploying staff from other program
areas to heighten focus on the fast-growing investment management industry. The
exam program also increased its use of advanced quantitative techniques to
enable examiners to detect misconduct by more quickly analyzing large amounts
of data. The Commission also enhanced technology in its examination program
through the National Exam Analytics Tool (NEAT), which enables examiners to
analyze large volumes of trading data much more efficiently.

White
serves as a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and on several
other domestic and international organizations, including the International
Organization of Securities Commissions, the Financial Stability Board, the
International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation Monitoring Board, the
Financial and Banking Information Infrastructure Committee, and the Federal
Housing Finance Oversight Board.

White says, “It has
been and will always be critical for this agency and the public that the SEC
remain truly independent. That independence is crucial to our ability to
protect investors, safeguard our markets and facilitate the capital formation
that fosters innovation and the growth that is essential to our national
economy.”